The beauty and awe of the internet lies in its amazing ability to decrease the gap in knowledge between industry specialists and laypeople. The informational content available in videos, blogs, and content-driven websites can be a terror to consultants whose knowledge was once considered exceptional. However, we at Systemtek believe that increasing understanding—particularly when one is purchasing a service—is something that is wonderful and ultimately beneficial to progress in our world.

As such, our Chicago-area web development company seeks not only to provide you with powerful IT, design, and website solutions, but also to help you understand what is going on behind the scenes. One of these scenes is the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO, also related to Search Engine Marketing or SEM), which is, simply, the process of improving the ranking of a website in search engine results. A website that has good SEO is more likely to show up on the first page of a Google or Bing search, usually due to a combination of factors such as the keywords found on the site, the way the webpage is labeled, or even the age of the website.

That said, there really is an entire “world” of Search Engine Optimization. Web design and e-commerce consultants are endlessly increasing their own understanding of how to maximize website rankings, and business owners are increasingly recognizing the business value of good SEO. Studies show that the market for SEO has seen double-digit growth in the last year, even despite a turbulent world economy. Companies are now realizing that harnessing the power of search and social media markets is important to industries across the board.

The SEO universe gets even bigger when you consider the human side of search algorithms, which are the nuts and bolts that spin each time a user submits a search engine query. For example, and as this article from CNET News explains, a team of Google staff (numbering in the “hundreds”) is constantly at work improving the functionality of their search engine. The updates they make—adding up to some 400 per year—battle spam, help searchers find what they really want, and work towards keeping Google a dominant web information provider over contestants like Bing or Yahoo.

Unfortunately, each major update means that the formula for good SEO has changed, in some big or small way. Well-optimized websites that were in the top 10 results can suddenly find themselves way off the map, which can have serious consequences for the amount of web traffic they receive. In ways, this sounds dreadful, but algorithm tweaks happen for a reason: just look at the case of online eyeglass retailer which exploited a loophole in Google’s search engine to drive up its results ranking.

Yes, achieving good Search Engine Optimization is complicated and intricate work, but it doesn’t have to be completely shrouded in mystery. Keeping up with search engine algorithm changes can also be frustrating, but it’s nothing that internet savvy and attentive site traffic monitoring can’t work with. With the right approach, the world of SEO can be seen as a dance, and as playing in harmony with the ebb and flow of the internet.

For more information, watch this short video by Google on its search algorithms.